William Attah, Gombe
The Publicity Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Gombe State, Mr. Moses Kyari, has described the raging supremacy feud in the party between the State Governor, Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya and a former Governor, also a serving Senator, Muhammad Danjuma Goje, as the flexing of muscles.
Kyari called a press conference to clear the air about Governor Inuwa Yahaya’s involvement in the arraignment in court of one Muhammed Yayari, who was purported to have gone on social media, to broadcast that over eighty per cent of Local Government and ward party executives in Yamaltu-Deba Local Government Area had resigned their positions in solidarity with Senator Goje.
He said, “the orchestrated plan of the Senator (Goje) to cause disunity and unsettle the peace was hatched at the home of one of his aides, Alhaji Babayo Danjuma, who is presently at large. Executives of the APC in Yamaltu-Deba were clandestinely coerced to a meeting in the residence of Babayo, where they solicited for the cooperation and loyalty of the executives to Senator Goje.
” No issue of resignation of office was raised or adopted, but to our utter dismay, one Muhammed Yayari, went on social media to broadcast outright lies.
“The APC Local Government executives of Yamaltu-Deba wrote a formal complaint against the duo of Babayo Danjuma and Mohammed Yayari to which in my interview of the ill-fated day, I made reference, to which action was accordingly taken”, he explained.
According to Kyari, the State Executives of the party took up the matter and wrote a petition to the Police where, after investigation, Yayari was arrested and subsequently charged to court.
He said, “It is a great disservice for anybody to insinuate that His Excellency, Alhaji Muhammed Inuwa Yahaya, has any kind of involvement in the self-inflicted travails of the rumour monger and his backers”.
While acknowledging the cracks between Governor Inuwa and Senator Goje, Kyari went on to say that there is no crisis in Gombe APC but the flexing of muscles between the two APC stalwarts.
” Senator Goje doesn’t want to agree that he is not the leader of the party in Gombe State but Governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya. APC is fully on ground and we are assiduously working for success in 2023 election. We are forging ahead in spite of the little skirmishes”.
It will be recalled that just before the APC wards and Local Government Congresses, Governor Inuwa Yahaya and Senator Goje fell apart politically, due to moves by both to have control over the party structures at all levels in the State.
However, the situation got worse in early November when supporters of both politicians clashed, resulting in the loss of a life during Senator Goje’s visit to the State.